Found out this morning that my story “Ground Wood,” originally published by the now-defunct Wrong World as a DVD ebook, will be in Volume One of Best New Zombie Tales, edited by James Roy Daley at his Books of the Dead Press. Also in the first volume are stories by Ray Garton (30k word novella), Kealan Patrick Burke, Jeff Strand, Harry Shannon & Gord Rollo, Brian Knight, Jonathan Maberry and a new story by Kim Paffenroth, among others. See the TOC for the first two books here.
I think the heroes made the correct choice on Survivor last night. Probst was right on the money when he challenged the wisdom of blindly clinging to alliances made in the early days of the competition when they really needed contest winning players like Tom and Colby. JT needs to learn a poker face, though. His guilt was written all over his face during tribal council. I loved the scenes where first Tyson and then Boston Rob told Coach essentially to quit whining and man up. Doesn’t look like he took the lesson well, though. Boston Rob rocked in the immunity challenge. Calm, cool and assertive under pressure.
I also liked the CIA guy on CSI last night. He looked like a wigged out hippie with his chill on. Mildly creepy in the way he knew something about everyone, but very West Coast. The Mentalist was decent, too. I had the killer pegged from the very beginning, for no obvious reason other than she looked guilty.
I finished reading Ian McEwan’s Solar last night. It’s a fascinating book, chock full of photosynthesis and semiconductors. The main character is a self-absorbed bastard who has had five wives and can’t commit to anyone for anything. He’s been coasting on his reputation as a Nobel Prize winner for years, he’s fat, sloppy (mushrooms growing along the baseboard of his apartment and his maids keep quitting), mildly arrogant, and not above cheating to get what he wants. It’s fascinating to watch his downward spiral–at the end, he still manages to find people to cheat with, but they’re the kind of woman who the police find passed out in the gutter once or twice a year. And everything, absolutely everything, comes crashing down on him in the span of a few hours.
Next up: Innocent, the sequel to Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow. I honestly don’t remember if I read the book before or after I saw the movie, but the movie is impressed into my memory much more than the book itself, although I think it was a faithful adaptation. Hard to shake the sight of Harrison Ford’s dodgy haircut, that’s for sure.
Here’s an interview with Nancy Kilpatrick about the Evolve anthology that will be launching at World Horror.
